My Move to Yale Law School

After spending more than two decades in the Department of Politics at Princeton University, I'm pleased to announce that I will joining the faculty of Yale Law School in the fall of 2024. At YLS, I also expect to be the faculty director of a new center focused on academic freedom and free speech issues.

I've been extremely fortunate to have been at Princeton, and I leave with nothing but good feelings and best wishes for my students and colleagues there. It is time to take on some new challenges, however, and I very much look forward to joining a new set of students and colleagues at Yale.

Yale Law School has an unparalleled role in shaping the legal academia and influencing policymakers, and I'm looking forward to finding my own niche there.

I'm not unmindful of the significance of this move at the present moment. YLS has, of course, had its own recent controversies regarding free speech and ideological diversity. Yale has notoriously been lacking in right-of-center public law faculty for decades. Co-blogger Josh Blackman says YLS is a failed academic institution. I hope not! But the lack of political diversity on elite law school faculties is unhealthy, and I'm glad to be able to do my small part to mix things up. Law students and law schools need to be able to understand and engage productively with a conservative federal judiciary. With the very meaning of the conservatism in the United States up for grabs, I look forward to lending what perspective and expertise I can to public debates.

I'm grateful to Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken for her efforts in making this happen, and to the faculty at YLS for their welcome. The next couple of decades should be interesting. More to come in due course.

Comments

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

From an article cited by Prof. Whittington:

Georgetown Law School professor Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz ’92 LAW ’99, who identifies as a conservative, said Yale Law faculty is “almost entirely” left of center politically. “The reason for this extreme imbalance is certainly not a lack of plausible candidates; there are several prominent right-of-center scholars who are eminently qualified to teach at Yale,” Rosenkranz said. “The most plausible explanation for the ideological imbalance is that this very liberal faculty prefers to hire colleagues who share their own views.”

(1) Are conservatives who share that view similarly bothered by the hiring record of federal judges who favor candidates from th3e Federalist Society? Have any right-wingers expressed such a concern?

(2) Is it unexpected or wrong that an institution that prefers reason, modernity, science, inclusiveness, and progress (to gay-bashing, backwardness, racism, dogma, superstition, insularity, antisemitism, Islamophobia, transphobia, and misogyny) would prefer liberal-libertarian mainstream candidates (and disfavor conservatives) for faculty positions?

(3) Why would our strongest research and teaching institutions wish to emulate weaker schools by arranging more conservative faculties?

[Cheerio]

“liberal-libertarian”

Today’s left-wing academic orthodoxy is every bit as ideologically zealous (and opposed to reason and inclusiveness) as any religious right-wing schools.

Their woke zealotry has proven to be neither “libertarian” nor (classically) “liberal,” both of which I’d welcome…but neither of which you’ve ever exhibited here.

[David Welker]

I have finally muted Kirkland. His rantings are mostly (but not always) a waste of time. If you try to engage him, he will only double down on slogans or whatever.

I actually don’t think these schools are as bad as they sometimes seem. I don’t think they are just full of “woke zealotry” or whatever.

I do think they would be better if they expanded, and in the process, made more of an effort to create an ideologically diverse environment. For the sake of critical thinking.

[Longtobefree]

"I also expect to be the faculty director of a new center focused on academic freedom and free speech issues."

At Yale? Good luck, Mr. Phelps.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Yeah, makes you wonder how soon after signing his contract will self-destruct.

[Bob from Ohio]

You were hired because they know you will be tame.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I have to agree on this -- sadly, I can't say that I've ever seen you express an actual conservative opinion, and recollect disagreeing with you on your definitions of free speech & academic freedom.

[Sarcastr0]

Unperson all who rise above being Internet shitposters.

[David Nieporent]

Congrats and good luck!

[Noscitur a sociis]

Congratulations of course, and I don't mean this personally, but... what exactly qualifies you to be a law professor?

[David Welker]

Maybe try Google to answer that question and get back to us.

[Noscitur a sociis]

I know that the ship sailed long ago on requiring law professors to have any experience practicing law, but it seems like they should at least be lawyers. Or failing that, have attended law school.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I thought that the ABA actually REQUIRED that….

Unless he officially is posted with the PolSci department and this is all interdepartmental stuff. But even then...

[mulched]

Or read the press release helpfully linked in the OP.

I don't see that he's ever passed a bar exam or been a practicing lawyer, but it also doesn't sound like they're hiring him to a pass-the-bar position.

[David Welker]

It is good that Yale is bringing a tiny amount of intellectual diversity to its faculty. This is also largely insufficient.

The Yale faculty, to the extent it has limited conservative ideology in its ranks, has also limited critical thinking.

It is good to have people who disagree with each other in an intelligent manner, because it reveals underlying assumptions that may otherwise be overlooked.

Furthermore, when academia chooses to become insular and disconnected from the wider society, it starts to lose support. Their are increasing numbers of people who question the value of education at all, especially on the right. And that is harmful to our society, especially in an age where automation implies that society is going to shift towards more intellectually complicated work.

Who knows, maybe the skeptics of universities and higher education are right in the long run. Maybe in the future, people will be just as well off becoming educated at home.

In many ways, that may be better. Especially to the extent that the ivy league has degenerated to move away from the core mission of education to the mission of replicating superficial class distinctions across generations. For example, I do not understand why Harvard, with its large endowment, has not sought to open more campuses in more states as other successful institutions do. My conclusion is that perhaps these institutions are not really about providing education, but rather granting the closest thing you can earn resembling a title of nobility in modern American society. Looked upon from that perspective, you can see why they don’t expand. The “title” loses its value to impress when it is accessible.

If that is what it is, we shouldn’t be surprised when faculty end up being more ideological homogeneous. The core mission of the university to benefit society more broadly, as opposed to becoming nothing more than another special interest, fluctuates in importance. Self-indulgence (for example, asking which people would be more pleasant to work with because they have more agreeable opinions and approaches) may dominate any sense of general mission.

[Vryedni]

Zombie Bob Bork roams the halls.

[David Welker]

That guy…

Are you telling me to be careful what I wish for, because it might come true?

[Brett Bellmore]

Let's hope you're still employed a year from now.

[gVOR08]

I realize I'm wasting my time here, motivated reasoning can always overcome facts, but this seems a good place to link to a recent TPM article on how conservatives have been funneling massive amounts of money through Leonard Leo to influence the federal judiciary, state judiciaries, state AGs and Solicitors, etc. in a conservative direction.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/we-dont-talk-about-leonard-the-man-behind-the-rights-supreme-court-supermajority
Why put up with a fair marketplace of ideas when you can afford to buy preference?

[Kazinski]

The people who have been influencing the federal judiciary are the voters that have voted for Ronald Reagan, George Bush 1 & 2, and Donald Trump and majorities in the Senate.

It's been an acknowledged problem among Republicans since the Eisenhower administration that Republicans have been terrible about appointing justices that are not as conservative as expected, with justices Brennen, Stevens, and Souter clear examples of liberals put on the court by moderate Republicans, and O'Connor, Kennedy, and Roberts moderate justices put on the court by conservatives.

The fact that someone is doing their best to put together a vetted list of conservatives that actually are conservative is to be celebrated.

And as for the 30 million in donations Leo raised for Scalia Law School, compare that to the billion dollar endowments at Harvard and Yale.

And 1.16 billion trust fund fund Leo manages for conservative causes, that pales with the 32 billion George Soros donated to his Open Society foundations, and Soros is hardly alone on the left.

[Area Man]

BREAKING: Conservatives participate in democracy by helping preferred candidates get elected and appointed to public office.

[David Welker]

The Federalist Society isn’t aiming for intellectual diversity when it comes to judicial selection. But law schools should aim for it for the sake of creating an environment that fosters reasoned debate and critical thinking.

We don’t want to view academia as an ideological prize, because:

(1) that will inhibit debate and ultimately critical thinking; and
(2) that will decrease support for education among any perceived “losers” and that may mean less educational opportunity.

[Social Justice is neither]

Just following in the footsteps of your paymaster Soros. Funny how their are no complaints when marxists are buying influence in the justice system but heaven forbid anyone support Western values and not insane marxist claptrap.

[John F. Carr]

What is the role of a "faculty director"? Does it mean policy but not administrative work?

[Dr. Ed 2]

And does it carry all the rights and privileges of being a member of the faculty?

[Commenter_XY]

Good luck with YLS; free speech and free throught are under attack at YLS (and other elite schools). You have your work cut out for you.

[Frank Drackman]

Heavens! a Yale man! (HT Thurston Howell III)

[The Margrave of Azilia]

I’m sure the good professor is excellently qualified for Yale, and for Princeton, too. So don’t think I’m denying that in the slightest.

But I should like to hypothesize – i. e., guess – about a possible motive for the hiring.

Prof. Whittington, based on his posts here, seems like someone who in the old days would have been called a civil libertarian. Maybe there was a period when he would have joined the ACLU (not the modern organization, but the 1950s and 1960s version).

And while he opposes woke censorship, Yale probably noticed that he’s been opposing many red-state laws, including laws which threaten tenure. Maybe he’s right about these laws, but right or wrong, it’s probably a position Yale agrees with.

He’s opposed a categorical ban on promoting abortion in the state university context – even giving women’s studies courses as an example of where promotion of abortion would be protected by academic freedom.

https://reason.com/volokh/2022/09/26/abortion-classroom-discussion-and-the-university-of-idaho/

Again, even if he’s right (which he isn’t), this position doesn’t exactly challenge woke orthodoxy.

Maybe Yale figured that getting an academic-freedom zealot on the faculty – someone who can say “as a conservative, I deplore the conservative attacks on etc. etc.” – would be worth the cost of their new hire defending free speech for the politically incorrect.

I could of course be totally wrong - maybe Yale looked solely at Prof. Whittington's (excellent) qualifications.

I hope to see him piss off the woke contingent at Yale in some key cases, though.

[Vryedni]

Congratulations. Buy a flak jacket.

[Stephen Lathrop]

My preference would be for renewed notions of legal conservatism or legal liberalism organized along an axis of distinctions among judicial practices. Whatever may be wrong with Yale Law School, or Harvard Law School, or any other law school, will only be made worse by hiring decisions made with an eye to partisan political affiliation.

[Mark Regan]

Dear Professor Whittington,

Congratulations on the appointment, and please do keep contributing to the Volokh Conspiracy.

[Champion]

Very cool article, I liked the way you covered the topic of moving and adapting to a new educational institution, it was very interesting. But I was not even interested in that, I was interested in the new challenges you faced, which always evokes a lot of emotions and impressions. For example, when I changed educational institutions, I felt some relief, because I always had metrotimes.com with me, which helped me with all my written work. In general, I would like to add that the transition to a new educational institution is a great stress for many people, and I would like you to elaborate on this issue.

[Lukitto]

I agree with you, my friend, I would like to know more personally about the studies, whether the difficulty has changed, how the fact that you changed educational institutions affected you and whether there were any significant changes. Because when my sister moved to another school, it was incredibly stressful for her, and she felt it for a very long time, and it was good that she had a masterpapers that helped her to quickly adapt to the new place and helped her with her studies, because they assigned a lot of written work, which was very upsetting. In general, after two weeks, she adapted completely and went to school normally without tears in her eyes.

[andyvotty]

goood says dude

[andyvotty]

yep
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[andyvotty]

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